Book Four
Know that if you become worse you will go to the worse souls, and if better, to the better souls; and in every succession of life and death you will do and suffer what like must fitly suffer at the hands of like.
And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
“YOU’RE SAFE NOW,” PHOEBE told her, welcoming her into her basement apartment. “And where’s this young lover of yours?” she asked next, smiling.
“But how could you know?” Jennifer stood back, startled by the channeler’s question.
“Dance told me.” She kept smiling, looking up at Jennifer. “I think it’s wonderful!”
“Kirk saved my life, really. He came racing by in his little car and picked me up. God knows what would have happened to me if he hadn’t stopped.”
“He didn’t just happen by, Jennifer, as you must realize by now. People don’t meet by chance. It’s all planned and ordained. It’s your karma. Both of your karmas.”
She had her thin arm linked into Jennifer’s and was using Jennifer to support her as they walked into the living room, which on this cloudy afternoon was lit by a dozen small candles casting shadowy light.
“Where is your young friend now?” Phoebe asked offhandedly as she eased herself onto the small sofa.
“He’s flying in later this afternoon. He had an appointment in Chicago.”
“Good! Then you’ll be together in a few hours.” She seemed pleased.
“Why?” Jennifer asked, watching the small woman, wondering about the odd collection of questions.
Phoebe shrugged. “It’s always better if you are with someone who understands you, especially now while you are having such intense past-life regressions.”
“I have you,” Jennifer whispered, wanting to show the woman how much she depended on her.
“Thank you.” Phoebe smiled, nodding her thanks. “It is my privilege, really, to be so close to such a powerful source as yourself.”
“Except no one knows who I am! Or who I really once was, I should say.”
“I think it’s time we did force this spirit into the open, Jenny. We need to identify it.” She was not looking at Jennifer, but reaching down beside the sofa and pulling out a large box.
“Can Dance tell us?”
Phoebe shook her head. “Dance can’t help us. He operates on another level of consciousness. He isn’t a reincarnated spirit like Habasha. What I must do is contact directly the spirit that is using your body, trying to work through your consciousness.”
The channeler leaned forward and lowered her voice. She held Jennifer’s attention steady with the intenseness of her gaze, the look in her brown eyes. “The entity that wants to be channeled by you, Jenny, is also protecting you. He or she is waiting for the right moment, waiting for you to come into your full powers, so that you’ll accept him. So far, however, this spirit has only been protecting you from physical attacks. It is also clear that there is another reincarnated spirit, Jennifer, that is trying to kill you before you realize your full spiritual power.”
“But who is that person, or whatever. Is it Kathy Dart?” Jennifer had raised her voice. She was frightened again.
“I don’t know,” Phoebe said softly. “But this may help us.” She held up a game box.
“A Ouija board! That’s a children’s game.”
“Yes, unfortunately it is treated as a child’s game, but it is a dangerous toy and should not be used by adults, either, without training and experience.”
Phoebe set the board on the coffee table and opened it, continuing to talk as she took the board from the box.
“A Ouija board, or talking board, as it is sometimes called, is very old. In 540 B.C. Pythagoras used them in his seances. This board was reinvented in 1892 by a man named Fuld. It’s very simple, really, just a semicircle of the letters of the alphabet, and the words ‘YES,’ ‘NO,’ and ‘GOOD-BYE.’ ” She looked over at Jennifer. “Have you ever used one?”
Jennifer shook her head. “No, not even as a child. I seem to remember it was banned from our house—something to do with the devil.”
Phoebe smiled. “Yes, that’s the cultural superstition. And today among parapsychologists it is accepted that Ouija boards attract channel entities of the lower classes, unless handled by a channeler.”
Phoebe picked up a small platform supported by three inch-long legs. “This is a planchette. See how it’s shaped like a pointer? As I ask questions, the pointer will indicate letters to spell out a message.” She handed Jennifer paper and a pencil. “I’ll ask the questions, Jennifer, and would you please take notes.”
Phoebe lifted the board off the coffee table and set it on her lap. “I need to have physical contact,” she explained, placing her fingers lightly on the planchette.
“We’ll begin slowly,” Phoebe went on. “I’ll ask the questions and summon up the spirit. It may take several minutes after I ask a question for the spirit to announce itself,” she added. “You’ll see the planchette move. When the planchette indicates a letter, just jot it down.”
Jennifer nodded, but she was already tense.
“Relax, Jennifer,” Phoebe advised, and then she placed her fingers lightly on the planchette and, closing her eyes, asked the Ouija board, “Do you wish to communicate with us?”
Jennifer glanced from Phoebe’s hands to her soft, pale face, and then steadied her gaze again on the channeler’s fingers.
For several minutes nothing happened, and Jennifer realized she was holding her breath. She took a deep breath to calm herself and was about to speak, to tell Phoebe that she was too frightened and tense to go on with this, when the planchette suddenly moved and the pointed end of the plastic platform turned in the direction of the word “Yes.”
“What are you called?” Phoebe asked.
Jennifer kept staring at Phoebe’s hand as the instrument moved again and in rapid jerks pointed to more than a dozen letters.
Quickly, Jennifer scribbled down the letters as the planchette tracked across the smooth board, then read the words out loud: “I am one of many names.”
“You say you are one of many names,” Phoebe said, still with her eyes closed. “But what do you wish us to call you?”
PHARAOH
Next to the name “PHARAOH,” Jennifer wrote “Egypt.”
“Do you know Habasha?” Phoebe asked the board.
ETHIOP
“Yes, an Ethiopian. Have you and Habasha been reincarnated many times?” Phoebe questioned the spirit. Again the planchette moved.
YES
“And our Jennifer?”
YES
“Is our friend Jennifer in danger?” Phoebe asked, softening her voice.
The planchette moved quickly under Phoebe’s fingers. The heart-shaped instrument crossed the flat smooth surface on its own accord. It pulled back to the middle of the board, then sped again to the word “YES” and the symbol of the bright sun. Jennifer stared at Phoebe. The channeler’s brown eyes had opened and widened.
Phoebe continued with her questioning. “Tell us, spirit,” she asked calmly, “who wishes to harm our soulmate Jennifer?”